Meta gains 11%; Chinese resilience boosts Toyota; Rapyd acquires PayU

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Cost cuts lead to Meta gains

Meta [META] stock secured a ninth consecutive month of gains in July, its longest rally since IPOing in 2012. Gains of 11.02% during July were driven by the impact of 21,000 jobs being cut through late 2022 and early 2023, as well as a recovery in Facebook’s online ad business. Meta is looking to further boost engagement with the rollout of artificial intelligence (AI)-driven chatbots with their own distinct “personas”.

Prosus agrees Rapyd PayU sale

Prosus [PRX.AS] has agreed the sale of part of its emerging markets financial technology company PayU to Israeli fintech-as-a-service startup Rapyd for $610m. The deal will exclude Prosus’s largest market, India, as well as its Turkish and Indonesian units, but will include its Global Payments Organisation which accounts for a third of Prosus’s overall revenue, according to Bloomberg.

Chinese resilience leads to earnings beat for Toyota

Unexpected resilience in the Chinese market has pushed Toyota’s [7203.T] first-quarter (FY 2024) profits up 94% to ¥1.12trn (approximately $7.85bn). Improved semiconductor supply, a weak yen, and a rebound in global demand for vehicles are also credited for the company’s profits, which beat the ¥880bn forecast by analysts cited by Bloomberg by 27.27%.

India or Thailand targeted by Mobility in Harmony

Foxconn’ s [2354.TW] Mobility in Harmony (MIH), a unit dedicated to creating a standardised electric vehicle (EV) platform, will target India or Thailand for the launch of its in-development battery car. MIH’s CEO Jack Cheng told Reuters that the new three-seat EV will be aimed at the corporate delivery fleet, and will cost below $20,000. MIH confirmed on Monday that the car will use BlackBerry’s [BB.TO] operating system and IVY AI platform.

QuantumScape turns to Western Digital veteran

Solid-state battery startup QuantumScape [QS] has hired chip veteran Siva Sivaram, most recently president of Western Digital [WDC], to lead its technology and manufacturing groups in a newly created president role. ON Semiconductor’s [ON] shares hit an all-time high on Monday following an earnings beat of $1.33 earnings per share and $2.09bn revenue. ON shares closed the day 2.5% up.